Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-hzqq2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-13T21:00:54.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Binge-eating and Self-induced Vomiting in the Community

A Preliminary Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Peter J. Cooper  and
Christopher G. Fairburn
Peter J. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
Christopher G. Fairburn
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This study examined by questionnaire the prevalence of binge-eating and self-induced vomiting among a sample of 369 consecutive attenders at a family planning clinic. 20.9 per cent reported current episodes of uncontrollable and excessive eating (‘binges’), 2.9 per cent currently induced vomiting as a means of weight control; and 4.9 per cent reported using laxatives. Binge-eating and self-induced vomiting were strongly associated with disturbed attitudes to food, eating, body weight and shape; and with psychiatric disturbance. Menstrual dysfunction was not associated with either body weight or binge-eating; it was however associated with psychiatric state. Applying conservative rules, 1.9 per cent appeared to fulfil diagnostic criteria for the recently described syndrome bulimia nervosa.

Information

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 142 , Issue 2 , February 1983 , pp. 139 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Button, E. J. & Whitehouse, A. (1981) Subclinical anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine, 11, 509–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crisp, A. H. (1981) Anorexia nervosa at normal body weight: The abnormal/normal weight control syndrome. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 11, 203–33.Google ScholarPubMed
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edition) (1980) Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Fairburn, C. G. (1982) Binge-eating and bulimia nervosa. SK&F Publications, 1(4), 1–20.Google Scholar
Fairburn, C. G. & Cooper, P. J. (1982) Self-induced vomiting and bulimia nervosa: an undetected problem. British Medical Journal, 284, 1153–55.Google Scholar
Garner, D. M. & Garfinkel, P. E. (1979) The Eating Attitudes Test: an index of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine, 9, 273–79.Google Scholar
Geigy (1962) Average weights of adults (Society of Actuaries: Build and Blood Pressure Study, Chicago, 1959). p. 623, Documenta Geigy. Scientific Tables. Manchester: Geigy Pharmaceuticals.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. & Hillier, V. F. (1979) A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine, 9, 139–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. P., Kay, C. & Thompson, L. (1976) Psychiatric morbidity in general practice and the community. Psychological Medicine, 6, 565–69.Google ScholarPubMed
Halmi, K. A. Falk, J. R. & Schwartz, E. (1981) Binge-eating and vomiting: a survey of a college population. Psychological Medicine, 11, 697–706.Google Scholar
Hawkins, R. C. & Clement, P. F. (1980) Development and construct validation of a self-report measure of binge-eating tendencies. Addictive Behaviours, 5, 219–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huenemann, R. L., Shapiro, L. R. Hampton, M. C. & Mitchell, B. W. (1966) A longitudinal study of gross body composition and body conformation and their association with food and activity in a teen-age population American Journal of Human Nutrition, 18, 325–38.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. E. & Pyle, R. L. (1982) The bulimic syndrome in normal weight individuals: a review. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 1, 61–73.Google Scholar
Nylander, I. (1971) The feeling of being fat and dieting in a school population. Acta Socio-medica Scandinavica, 1, 17–26.Google Scholar
Russell, G. (1979) Bulimia nervosa: an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine, 9, 429–48.Google Scholar
Sheldrake, P. & Cormack, M. (1976) Variations in menstrual cycle symptom reporting. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 20, 169–77.Google Scholar

This journal is not currently accepting new eletters.

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.